[Mr. Jeeves]

It is astonishing in retrospect how few people argued strongly for more services rather than fewer people.

LOL! As if the foreign hordes become desirable neighbors simply because the citizens can get more free stuff.

[rstrahan]

The answer was more government spending. However, increased imports and lower local wages pushes incomes and tax revenues lower. Thus you end up with extreme deficit spending (the US) or a total economic collapse (Venezuela).

[pierrem15]

It is astonishing in retrospect how few people argued strongly for more services rather than fewer people.

Basically, they expect importers of cheap foreign made goods to receive a vast indirect subsidy as social costs for the unemployed skyrocket, while remaining workers and businesses are subjected to exorbitant tax increases and currency devaluation through deficit spending.

There is now way to square this circle: "free trade" and unrestricted immigration lead to destruction of local businesses and jobs, a declining tax base and soaring social costs as well as social and political destabilization.

It's almost as though an industrialized country that embraces "free trade" and immigration winds up suffering the political and economic equivalent of septicemia.